Startups

There is a simple reason the drug trade is so lucrative: Government mandates create a market opportunity for businesses willing to shirk the law. In the technology and venture capital world, this principle has not gone unnoticed. Some of the highest profile recent start-ups were built to exploit unmet consumer demand created by regulatory restrictions. Uber and Airbnb, for instance, have prospered because taxis are hard to find, and hotels are expensive and heavily taxed, while there are plenty of ordinary people with extra automobile capacity and rooms to rent. As technology know-how becomes less expensive and more pervasive, some start-ups “innovate” not by improving...

Related "Startups" Articles

The wine makers behind an award-winning Slate Belt vineyard are looking to open a craft distillery in south Bethlehem, among the first proposed for the Lehigh Valley.
The owners of Franklin Hill Vineyards are seeking a limited-distillery license, which...

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania has approved $600,000 in loans and grants for 10 companies and manufacturers, the organization announced Monday.Seven recipients awarded loans are based in the Lehigh Valley:• Cerora Inc. of...

WASHINGTON — B. Braun Medical and other makers of medical devices cried foul over a 2.3 percent tax imposed on their industry by Obamacare, saying it could force them to cut jobs, move overseas and stop growth.
Seven months since its implementation,...

The Lehigh Valley is the fastest-growing region in Pennsylvania. We are a day's drive from one-third of the population of the United States. The ease of access to large markets, combined with a lower cost of living, affordable real estate, lower taxes and...

Talking with shoe repairman David Seigfried, you'd never know there was a recession.
New customers have been coming into Camody Shoe Repair in Allentown to get their heels hammered and soles sewn as other merchants saw their businesses walking out the...

The Great Recession wiped out about 20,000 jobs in the Lehigh Valley, and many of those left unemployed have started their own businesses rather than look for new jobs, local business officials say.
"We've seen quite a few people who lost jobs and...

Scarcely more than three years ago, Electrikus Inc. was a collection of ideas taking shape around Bill Crompton's dining room table. Today, the company has its first product on the market and is planning the launch of a second.
Crompton, Electrikus'...

SAN FRANCISCO — Venture capital rising to levels not seen since 2001. Companies with no profits going public. Billions of dollars being paid for start-ups.
These and other signs that the tech boom may be taking an irrational turn are leading some notable...

NEW YORK — Since it was founded 12 years ago, the Tribeca Film Festival has sometimes swerved between identities like a barfly at happy hour, exuberant but hardly always clear.
The festival looks to change that this time around. Tribeca has entered an...

There was a time when Mike Judge feared that he'd missed the Google bus to the tech boom.
The writer-director, best known for creating MTV's "Beavis and Butthead," first thought of a TV series about the digital world in 1999. At the time, he...

(Reuters) - On President's Day last month, about 40 electric-car advocates gathered under the rotunda of the state capitol in Olympia, Washington, where a lobbyist for Tesla Motors Inc urged them to rally against a bill that would prevent the carmaker...

SAN FRANCISCO — Aaron Levie, the 29-year-old chief executive of Box Inc., walked the red carpet at the Oscars this year in a dark suit and tie, pressed white shirt and his trademark neon blue sneakers.
"I asked about the sneaker dress code,"...

The day started with a possible answer to one of the digital era's greatest mysteries: Who created the bitcoin virtual currency that has become a multibillion-dollar global phenomenon?
From there, with the unlikely revelation by Newsweek magazine that it...

U.S. and Japanese regulators are investigating the collapse of the world's largest exchange for trading bitcoins, the virtual currency that has grown in popularity among technophiles for buying products and services online.
The separate investigations...

Walt Disney Co. is giving 10 startup companies the chance at $120,000 to develop their ideas and receive mentoring from top company executives.
The three-month mentorship and seed-stage investment program, called Disney Accelerator, begins June 30, and...

A federal appeals court swept aside government regulations designed to ensure equal access to the Internet, raising the prospects of higher fees for consumers and more barriers for start-ups seeking to compete online.
The decision Tuesday could allow...

SAN FRANCISCO — In fewer than 140 characters, or 24 words, Twitter Inc. disclosed that it was planning the highest-profile public stock offering since Facebook Inc.
But that was about all it did, leaving stunned investors and analysts scrambling for...

Motorola and the Merchandise Mart have more than 160 years of local history between them. Now the two institutions are giving Chicago's burgeoning high-tech scene a major boost.
Smartphone-maker Motorola Mobility is moving its headquarters from...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Jake Winebaum is betting on a Web-based solution to take the hassle and price worry out of a health obligation many of us fear and some can't even afford - going to the dentist.
In addition to offering hefty discounts on everything...